Confused!! Please Help!

[Dancer]

I am new to the Stretching Scientifically book and I am abit confused about everything I have read. The book seems to focus on building strength through weight lifting exercises and isometric stretching in order to gain flexibility. However, I am a ballet dancer and the notion of lifting weights gives me visions of bulky thighs! This does not go well when wearing pink tights and a leotard!

Is it possible to gain the amount of strength required to do the side and front splits by simply performing the static active strength exercises (shown on pages 42-45) with a reistance band? And of course doing the appropriate static active stretches, and isometric stretches.

I basically want to improve my leg extensions (ie: holding the legs above 90 degrees to the side, back and front in the turned-out position without assistance) as well as gain the ability to perform splits without a warm-up.

I understand the ballet technique may seem alien to those experts in martial arts, but any assistance with my predicament is really appreciated!

[Maxim]

You think gaining muscular bodyweight is easy?!
Now that I've got that out of my system: don't worry about "getting bulky", unless you are genetically gifted (easy gainer, EXTREMELY rare) adding size, even if you wanted to, will be very very hard. You would have to spend years training hard, eating right and getting lots of rest.

Many have tried and many have failed to achieve the "bulky" look naturally(it's possible though, just not without enormous efforts or genetical advantages), it won't happen by accident, trust me.

Size does not necessarily equal strength, just look at the 69 kg olympic lifters who backsquat 250 kg with relative ease, while many heavier bodybuilders might not even be able to move this.


YOU CAN'T EVEN GAIN WEIGHT IF YOU ARE NOT IN A CALORIC SURPLUS!

Just do your strength work, if you don't use perfect bodybuilding training and nutrition methodology, chances are VERY slim for the average guy to add some noticable size.

[Dancer]

Thank you for your honest reply. I didn't mean to imply that building muscle bulk was easy. And I think it is safe to say that a female ballet dancer's notion of muscle bulk is NOT the same as an athletic man's understanding. In the past I have built too much muscle bulk by rollerblading because it is heavy on the legs. Many dancers also build too much muscle bulk by overusing the upper thigh muscles through poor technique. By this I do not mean the sort of bulk that weightlifters and male athletes aspire to. I simply mean any increase in the size of the thigh that makes the leg look more than lean and thin. To give you a better example, female gymnasts for example have more muscle bulk than desired by a ballet dancer.

Basically most ballet teachers advise against any sort of weight training since it develops more muscle size than is desired. So instead they recommend resistance training with elasticated bands so as to promote the production of strong but lean muscles.

So perhaps I should have explained that. Sorry. My question anyway is will building strength through resistance still have the large effects on flexibility described in this book

[Maxim]

Hi again
I have attached a picture of a ballerina and like you depict the ideal physique for ballet, I think this is a decent match
http://www.ballerinagallery.com/pic/alexan02.jpg

Basically most ballet teachers advise against any sort of weight training since it develops more muscle size than is desired. So instead they recommend resistance training with elasticated bands so as to promote the production of strong but lean muscles.

Honestly, I know NOTHING about ballet, but I do know a lot about strength training etc. You say they advise against weighttraining, but allow resistance with elastic bands...
Remember this: RESISTANCE=RESISTANCE and it does not matter wether it comes from elastic bands or barbells(off course he bands will resist harder at the end of the exercise, while "dead weights" do not)

I assume since you are a balerina you have a low bodyfat percentage, so don't worry about becoming more muscular if you don't eat enough. ADDITIONAL ENERGY IS REQUIRED(and since you have little bodyfat, it can't be used)

If you train with low volume(little repetitions and sets), but with high intensity(high percentage of the weight you can lift 1 time), chances of hypertrophy are even slimmer. Just look at weightlifters: although they are very "bulky", they are able to continually improve there strength while staying at the same bodyweight.

Do you need to be able to do splits, if not, focus on dynamic flexibility(leg lifts), if yes you will need more strength in the adductors anyways.


hope this helps you

[Dancer]

Yes that helps! Thank you!

ps: love the ballerina picture!

[Dancer]

Dragon has convinced me to stick to strength training. However I only have the Stretching Scientifically book and it does not detail exercises for strength other than the Dynamic exercises. Are there others I should be doing? I regularly do core strengthening exercises.
There was something mentioned about squats and good-morinings. I have no idea how to do these. How many should I do? I am a beginner with the strength training and have easily overtrained in the past simply by doing exercises with my own bodyweight.

[dragon]

I'm really not too sure where a dancer stands on the strength training issue.
A lot of the training advice is directed towards martial artists.As well as strengthening for isometrics,strengthening helps condition against the impact of kicking.
As you won't have this problem of kicking a solid target/having a kick blocked,i'm not sure if you need the same kind of conditioning routine.

Here is a link to show good mornings:-

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Ham ... rning.html

Personally never been keen on the good morning.You may find the stiff legged deadlift a safer option:-

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Ham ... dlift.html

And one for squats:-

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Qua ... Squat.html


As for how many:-
If you're not used to strengh training do maybe 2 work sets of 8-12 reps.Do as many warm up sets as you need with a lighter weight till you feel comfortable.

Dragon